[Elecraft] Why no doping of toroids in Elecraft kits?

Wed Jan 16 23:27:01 2002

Stuart is exactly correct.

If you dope it, I won't fix it.

I (still) see too many kits with toroids that need rework, 
and the last thing I'd want to do - is deal with a "dopey" toroid.  =:-p

I'd have toss it in the trash can, and wind another one correctly with no
dope on it.
It would simply take too long in service to clean and correct doped
toroids that had the wrong
turns count, PTTL, core type, or spacing of the windings. I see these
faults all the time.

There's no demonstrated need to secure any toroid in the rigs, other than
the VFO toroids
which we provide a nylon screw and nut for to hold them down for
frequency stability. No
other toroids are critical as to small variations in L-value, other than
if the LPF toroids are 
wound with their turns either incorrect or all bunched up.

My recommendation is to spend more time winding and tinning the darn
things correctly,
and less time worrying about how to secure them. :-)

73,

Gary Surrency AB7MY

Elecraft Technical Support

On Wed, 16 Jan 2002 13:22:07 -0600 "Stuart Rohre"
<[email protected]> writes:
> John,
> If the windings are tight, they will not slip.  If you dope a 
> winding, it
> changes the overall dielectric character by whatever the doping 
> material is
> made of, and if you did make an error, after further testing, it 
> would be
> possible to destroy the core and coil trying to correct a problem.  
> The dope
> will detune whatever you achieved by compressing or spacing out the 
> turns if
> done to excess.  In practical use, there is just no advantage to 
> doping
> other than making it hard to remove turns, and there are more 
> disadvantages
> in terms of getting coil dope where you do not want it, or its 
> dielectric
> and tuning effects on the overall circuit.  If you coat only thinly 
> with a
> polish that does not contain undesirable agents, you will get close 
> but not
> exactly to where you were, but an inexperienced builder, for 
> example, might
> try to use a colored polish, or slop it on too thick.  If you were 
> going to
> use your K2 in a Humvee, cross country, go ahead and dope the coils
> 72,
> Stuart K5KVH
> 
> 
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Gary Surrency AB7MY
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